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There are 657 more islands than we thought there were

Time‘s Erica Ho reports: Thanks to high-resolution images, Duke University and Meredith College geoscientists were able to add 657 new barrier islands to the total count, adding 30 percent more to the known list. There are now 2,149 discovered islands in total. The biggest string of islands happens to fall right off of Brazil’s coast, 54 ...

By , a former associate editor at Foreign Policy.
VANDERLEI ALMEIDA/AFP/Getty Images
VANDERLEI ALMEIDA/AFP/Getty Images
VANDERLEI ALMEIDA/AFP/Getty Images

Time's Erica Ho reports:

Time‘s Erica Ho reports:

Thanks to high-resolution images, Duke University and Meredith College geoscientists were able to add 657 new barrier islands to the total count, adding 30 percent more to the known list. There are now 2,149 discovered islands in total.

The biggest string of islands happens to fall right off of Brazil’s coast, 54 islands strong over a stretch of 354 miles. They had previously blended into a mangrove, so scientists weren’t exactly sure what they were. Most of the newly discovered islands lie in the northern hemisphere.

This is likely to be cold comfort to the island nations on the verge of obliteration. 

Joshua Keating is a former associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating

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